Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise Book 2) Read online

  Chaos Theory

  Nerds of Paradise: Book 2

  Merry Farmer

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  CHAOS THEORY

  Copyright ©2017 by Merry Farmer

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill (the miracle-worker)

  ASIN:

  Paperback:

  ISBN-13: 9781544033280

  ISBN-10: 1544033281

  Click here for a complete list of other works by Merry Farmer.

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  Created with Vellum

  For my brother, Stewart Farmer,

  who partially inspired this book with all his stories

  of Boy Scout camping trips over the years.

  Chapter One

  Will Darling was running late. Which meant he was only five minutes ahead of schedule. Late or early, it didn’t matter. If he wasn’t exactly where his daily schedule told him he was supposed to be, a deep-seated feeling of dread filled him. That’s what came from being raised in a military family.

  He closed the spreadsheet he’d taken home from work, and pushed back from his desk. The clock on the wall above his workstation said 11:35. He checked his watch. 11:35. Yep, five minutes early. That gave him time to pop into the bathroom of his swanky, Paradise Space Flight-issued apartment to switch out his glasses for contacts. In theory, he could go around with his glasses and no one would think anything of it. It wasn’t like his father would find out. But he’d rather not risk it.

  As soon as his eyeballs were taken care of, he headed across the apartment to the door, picking up his phone from where it was charging on an end table by the sofa and his wallet beside it. He tucked the wallet in his back pocket, and checked the phone. 11:37. He checked his watch to be sure everything was coordinated. Good. Perfect. Let others laugh at him, but there was something about keeping to a schedule, staying on course, that filled Will with contentment. It was why he had chosen to work for Paradise Space Flight in the first place. The company was new, innovative, and miles away from the distracting chaos of big cities and government bureaucracy. NASA might have been more prestigious, as his dad was constantly, constantly reminding him, but PSF was focused. It was comfortable.

  So was his apartment. Another awesome perk of working for Howie Haskell. Like most of the rest of the young, single engineers and scientists who had come to Wyoming to build the space flight company from the ground up, Will had taken advantage of the special employee housing. His apartment stood in the center of town, on the third floor above a clothing boutique. It was newly renovated and ran on renewable energy sources. But what Will loved most about it was the clean, streamlined design. He headed out the door, locking it with the fancy, high-security, electronic key all of the apartments had, and made his way down the airy, white-painted stairway to the ground floor and the front door. Even though the building had been constructed in the nineteenth century, it wasn’t frilly and crowded. It got the job done, and that’s all he had ever asked of anything.

  “Hey, Will.”

  Will glanced up as he stepped out into the balmy, spring air and found his team member, Laura Kincade, waving to him from across the street.

  “Laura.” He waved back with a nod, lips twitching to what, for him, counted as a smile.

  “Are you heading over to PSF for the big luncheon?”

  “In a minute,” he called back to her, then nodded to the General Store one building over from his. “I need to pick up a few things first.” He didn’t really want to have a shouted conversation across a street packed with pedestrians, but it was Laura, so he’d make an exception. Besides, everyone looked as though they were heading up the street toward the PSF building instead of browsing through the shops anyhow.

  “Okay,” Laura called back with another wave. “I’ll save you a seat.”

  “Thanks.” He raised his hand in goodbye, then strode a few yards down to the General Store’s entrance. The advantage of being slightly ahead of schedule, he guessed, was that he could take time to interact with his friends without tensing up. Although, if he was keeping track, he’d been much less tense since moving to Haskell than he’d been for most of his life.

  The General Store was another part of the reason he loved his new hometown. It was the perfect size for dropping in to pick up a few essentials in a hurry. On top of that, whoever had built it had a keen eye for ergonomics. He could make one efficient pass from the toiletries section where he picked up shaving gel—which he would need in exactly two days—to the stationary section for pens—because he was not one of those people who took pens from the office to use at home like they were perks of the job—to the snack food section for a large bag of unsalted nuts—because you had to live a little sometimes.

  Yep. Everything was just where it needed to be. Everything was in precise order. Everything was—

  “Whoops!”

  He rounded the corner and nearly crashed right into a splash of color and brightness and wild blond curls. His heart thumped against his ribs, like someone was punching him from the inside, and his groin tightened.

  “Sorry.” Melody Clutterbuck laughed as she made her apology. Her blue eyes sparkled with happiness and light. She wore a long wrap-around skirt printed with an Indian pattern and a white peasant blouse decorated with embroidery that matched the colors in her skirt. Her arms were filled with items from around the store, otherwise Will would have had a big glimpse of the creamy skin of her shoulders and chest.

  It took his brain far too long to catch up enough to say, “No, I’m sorry. I should have looked where I was going.”

  “You always look where you’re going.” She continued to smile as they headed to the counter at the front of the store. “I’m the one who was floating around like a leaf on the wind.”

  Prickles of pleasure filled Will at the image. Melody was a leaf on the wind. He’d seen that the first time he met her, at the winter mixer Howie had held for his employees and the citizens of Haskell after Christmas. She’d been there with a group of her friends, looking just as
amazing as she did now. His friends talked about that event as the day his supervisor, Scott Martin, had met the girl he was now engaged to, Casey Flint, but secretly, Will marked it as the night Melody had blown into his world.

  He blinked himself out of thoughts that were, frankly, disturbing. He had a schedule to stick to, a routine. “Why don’t you have a basket?” He lifted his own blue plastic shopping basket.

  Melody giggled, her face going pink. “I didn’t realize I was going to need one.”

  They reached the register, and she spilled her purchases across the counter. Will did a double-take, brow sinking into a frown of confusion. Baby oil, sandpaper, latex gloves, and an enema.

  “Hey Bernie,” Melody greeted the cashier, an white-haired guy who Will figured had been working there forever.

  “Hey, Melody,” Bernie answered. “This everything?”

  “Oh! I’ll take one of these too,” Melody added, face growing even pinker and her giggle more pronounced as she plucked a small jar of cherry lip balm from a display and popped it on the counter.

  Will’s blood rushed to all the wrong places. Cherry lip balm? Baby oil? An enema? Why, why, why did that selection of items turn him on? And sandpaper? He swallowed hard, trying to rein in his imagination, and ran a hand over the bottom half of his face.

  Bernie grinned indulgently at Melody. “You and Calliope still playing that game?”

  “Always,” Melody replied with a wink.

  Will frowned, an expression which, in this case, represented relief that he had something else to think about than all the ways Melody might want to use the items in front of her.

  Melody must have noticed his expression. She leaned closer, her smile downright wicked. “My sister and I have this game. Who can spend ten bucks and buy a collection of perfectly innocent items that have the most wildly suggestive use if put together.”

  Will could feel heat flood his face. “Looks like you’ve done a good job,” he said, or rather croaked. If she had half a brain, she’d be able to see that his mind had jumped straight to where she wanted it to be for her game.

  “I’m still trying to beat Calliope’s winning collection,” she explained.

  “Which was?” he asked, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

  “Rubber bands, caramel sauce, cucumbers, and a disposable camera.”

  Will’s jaw fell open. His mind raced to conjure up all sorts of images involving those items and Melody. None of them were PG. But then, he supposed that was the point of the game.

  “Yeah, I know.” Melody raised an eyebrow as if she could tell exactly what he was thinking. “The camera was the real stroke of genius in that one. I’m hoping I can win points for the sandpaper in this collection. It’s so out there that it makes you wonder.”

  “I…uh…wha….” There was absolutely nothing Will could say about that. And at the same time, every fiber of his being wanted to say something, to do something. Eight years of college and graduate school, four years of military service, two years of working for one of the top aerospace industries in the country, and she’d rendered him completely useless.

  “Sorry, Melody. That comes to eleven dollars and twenty-eight cents,” Bernie informed her with a shake of his head. “You’ll have to put something back.”

  Melody sighed and turned her attention to the counter. She picked up the enema, but put it down in favor of the latex gloves. “I suppose the gloves are more or less implied,” she said with a sigh.

  Bernie chuckled, re-rang her total, and put the remaining items in the bag.

  “Oh, hey, are you headed over to Howie’s big luncheon and announcement?” Melody asked after Bwernie took her money, handed over her bag, and started ringing up Will’s purchase.

  “Yes,” Will answered, his voice still too awkward for his liking. He should probably stand as close to the counter as possible too and focus on the caricature of a politician on the cover of one of the magazines beside the register. That would certainly deflate any of his body’s attempts to embarrass him.

  “I’ll wait for you,” Melody said with a smile. “We can walk over together.”

  “You’re going to the mixer?” Surprise went a long way to settling him down.

  “Of course.” Melody laughed. “Everyone in town is going, from what I hear. Sounds like it’s going to be fun.”

  Will frowned. “You do know what this spring’s mixer is going to be, don’t you?”

  “Isn’t it supposed to be a surprise?” Bernie asked.

  Melody’s grin grew mischievous. “It’s supposed to be a surprise, but I think everyone already knows what it is.”

  “What is it?”

  Will glanced to Melody before answering, “Orienteering.”

  Bernie blinked. “Orien-what-ing?”

  “It’s where they blindfold you and drop you in the middle of the wilderness with nothing but a compass, a map, and the clothes on your back, and you have to find your way out to a predetermined spot,” Melody answered, bursting with enthusiasm.

  “Although from what I understand, we’ll get a little more than a compass and a map,” Will added. He was equally as enthusiastic about the whole thing, but wasn’t about to show it for all the world to see.

  “And since this is Howie we’re talking about,” Melody went on, “I’m sure there’s bound to be some kind of weird twist to the whole thing.”

  Will’s chest constricted. Weird twists? He hadn’t thought of that. He wasn’t prepared for weird twists. Survival in the wilderness was twist enough.

  “That’ll be nineteen-fifty,” Bernie told Will.

  He was spared having to stress over Howie’s brand of the unknown as he took out his wallet and paid. He could handle the unknown, he told himself as he passed a twenty over to Bernie. His military tenure had prepared him for that much. He’d spent much of his time deployed in Germany, which wasn’t exactly a war-zone. But with Putin’s moves over the last few years, he’d had plenty of practice dealing with high-stakes unknown, no matter how his dad looked at it. Just because he hadn’t been in the desert, surrounded by IEDs, didn’t make him less of a soldier, the same way that working for PSF instead of working for NASA and striving to be an astronaut didn’t make him less of a—

  He shook his head, clearing away the thoughts that had sprung up out of the blue to kick him. His dad was miles away and had nothing to do with this.

  “So are you ready?” Melody asked, her voice strangely soft.

  Will blinked himself back to full attention, wondering how long he’d been standing there, lost in thought. “I just have to run these up to my apartment.”

  “Cool.” Melody started for the door. “Where’s your apartment.”

  “Next door.” Will followed her out, striding ahead to hold the door open for her. They crossed out into the spring sunshine and stepped down to the street. “I’ll just be a second.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Melody said, following him, swinging her own bag as she went.

  The prospect of having Melody Clutterbuck in his apartment, with all of her bright colors, open smiles, and curly hair sent shivers down Will’s spine. And just when he had stopped feeling like he would embarrass himself from the waist down. “It’s not a problem. I’ll just run upstairs.”

  “I’ve been wanting to see what they’ve done to these apartments since I started hearing about them,” Melody went on, either not hearing or ignoring him. They reached the front door, and since he had no intention of being rude, Will opened it and let Melody inside. “Rita says that they put all sorts of eco-friendly appliances and renewable energy sources into these babies.”

  They started up the stairs. In the closed quarters, Will swore he could smell flowers.

  “They are efficient apartments,” he told her. He kept his eyes forward as he climbed to the third floor, doing a quick mental inventory to make sure nothing embarrassing was out on display.

  “I would imagine they must be if they’re packed with the lat
est technology. Sometimes I think that Howie and his family are out of their minds to spend so much money on the town and its facilities, but everything seems to work out for them in the end.”

  “Hmm.” It was the only thing Will could think to say as he reached his apartment door. Did all women talk this much or was it just Melody?

  “Then again, the Haskell family fortune is so vast that they have to go looking for ways to spend it,” she went on. “I mean, I’m sure they could buy their own private island or a fleet of jets or something, but no, they’ve always been more civic-minded, and the residents of Haskell have—whoa!”

  Will pushed open the door and stepped into his apartment. Melody’s reaction baffled him. She pressed her free hand to her chest—drawing Will’s eyes to her perfect breasts—and looked around as if observing a palace.

  Then she blinked. “Where’s the rest of your stuff?”

  Will took a few steps to the side and tossed his shopping bag on the table. “What do you mean? This is all my stuff.”

  “Really?” Her smile widened. “But where’s the art? Where’s the color?”

  An itching feeling raced down Will’s back as he looked around, trying to see things the way she did. “I don’t really need art.”

  She dropped her hand and stared at him like he’d said he didn’t need air. “I’m not sure if I should feel sad or offended by that statement.”

  Will shrugged. “I don’t spend that much time here, and when I do, I’m usually asleep.”

  “Can I see your bedroom?” Her lips twitched into a grin.

  “No,” Will answered emphatically. His face flushed hot. “I mean, we need to get over to the PSF building. It’s—” He checked his watch, and then the clock on the wall. “—11:52. That’s just enough time to walk over there. We might even be late if we don’t hurry.”

  Melody made a snorting noise that somehow managed to be sexy and feminine. “We’ve got loads of time. Howie never starts anything on time anyhow.”